The city centre could easily be mistaken for Melbourne or Brisbane. The combination of good weather, great food, relaxed atmosphere and hoards of tanned, sickeningly good-looking people definitely has an Australian feel to it. But the ever-present Table Mountain and subtle yet distinct African feel quickly brings you back to Cape Town.

Cape Town city centre is quite small and easily navigated on foot, with all the main sights within easy walking distance from each other, although some sights, such as the District 6 Museum and the V&A Waterfront, might be better approached by taxi if you’re alone as they involve a short hike through some deserted areas. The crime here isn’t on the same scale as Johannesburg, it’s pretty safe during the day, but bear in mind that huge numbers of locals live in abject poverty away from the affluent city and coastal suburbs. Taxis are so cheap, and it makes sense to use them at night for anything more than short trips around the centre.

There is much to do in the city during the day. Table Mountain is an obvious must, although try to do this on the first clear day of your stay as the mountain is often surrounded by cloud. This, along with frequent windy days, means the cable car to the top could be closed. The area around Greenmarket Square has a large crafts market with vendors from South Africa and the rest of the continent offering traditional carved ornaments, jewellery, and African art.

For beach lovers, the suburbs of Camps Bay and Clifton have white sand and clear waters. Camps Bay has a large beach with a promenade of eateries and shops, and is popular with surfers as well as wealthy locals and tourists. Steps take you down to the secluded Clifton’s beaches from the main road. The beaches here are named, imaginatively, Beaches 1, 2, 3 & 4. Beach 3 is popular with gay people, while Beach 4 is larger and more family orientated. Clifton has the luxury of being ‘wind free’; a label applied to a select few suburbs along the coast that are sheltered from the strong South-Westerly winds by the Table Mountain range. Clifton and Camps Bay are a little out of the city centre, and are best visited by car, but there are minibuses going there from the centre, just look for one heading in the right direction and wave it down to ask where it’s going. There is supposedly a municipal bus service, but relying on this isn’t advisable, as we saw no evidence it existed for the entire duration of our stay!

With several large universities and a youthful population, Cape Town has developed a lively nightlife. You can enjoy a decent night out with dinner, drinks, dancing and a taxi home for less than £40, so there’s no excuse not to. Areas such as Camps Bay and Clifton specialize in high-class nightlife, and Prince Harry has even been seen partying in the beachside bars around here. In the centre, the scene is more aimed towards local 20-somethings and backpackers, with prices and dress codes to match. Long Street and Kloof Street are the main centres of nightlife here.
There are quite a few gay venues, mostly to the North-West of the centre around Somerset Road. We visited Bronx, which has established itself as a mainstay of the scene. It has sensibly built the dance floor around a central bar, meaning you’re never too far away from the next drink. Free or cheap entry, lots of cute boys with their tops off and friendly staff make this a great place to end up at on a night out.

If you’re looking for something more relaxed, The Shack is a huge, grungy place with lots of seating, pool tables, a pizza kitchen and beers for a little over a quid. It’s not specifically gay, but it shouldn’t be too hard to make new friends here. All the taxi drivers know where it is; it’s best not to go by foot as it is a little out of the centre. If you’re hungry when you leave get yourself a snack at the hotdog stand across the road – watch out for dripping sauce as they are rammed full of salsa.

Another mixed venue is Neighbourhood on Long Street. Like many bars on this street it’s on the first floor and has a balcony you can sit out on and watch people going about their evening. On the night we went it had a fairly lethal offer on cocktails that were not only cheap but expertly made. For a more civilized evening head to the V&A Waterfront, a huge development of restaurants, bars and shops that caters for every taste possible, although it can feel a little sterile and generic; you could be in an historic version of Portsmouth’s Gunwharf Quay (if Portsmouth was 30 degrees in January and had seals frolicking on the beach that is). Additionally, close to the Bronx there is a new, large centre called Cape Quarter, where there are loads of restaurants and bars. This is on the edge of the gay village, making it a convenient place to begin the evening.

It’s worth remembering drinks are not only cheaper in Cape Town, but a lot stronger. Many of the local beers are over 5% and spirit measures are usually larger. While many venues stay open until 4am, there is often a 2am limit on serving alcohol.

Accommodation is actually quite expensive compared to everything else in Cape Town. We stayed in Upperbloem, which offers a range of rooms with a communal kitchen offering free drinks and a continental breakfast all day, perfect for those hungover mornings where you can sit with a Danish and coffee on the balcony admiring the view of the city and its Table Mountain backdrop. There’s also a pool should you want to cool off. Located in colourful Bo Kaap, a predominantly Muslim area where the call to prayer resonates through the air throughout the day, you’re only a 10 minute walk or a £2 taxi ride from the centre – the streets here surpass San Francisco in their epic gradients, so you may want to walk into town and get a cab back! The warm and welcoming owner Katrin has an extensive knowledge of the city and is always happy to suggest activities.

If you venture a little further out of the city you’ll find a range of activities. Within a few hours drive there are vineyards, whale watching, beaches full of penguins, excellent hiking, adventure activities such as bungee-jumping, scuba diving, cage diving to see sharks, ostrich farms and safari parks with elephants and lions.

South Africa is an 11-hour flight from London, with minimal time difference and most flights operating overnight, allowing you to get out and explore the moment you arrive. A bus service costs around £5 from the airport to the centre. A taxi will cost around £20. There are approximately 10 rand to the pound, so no complicated calculations paying the bar tab. Gay people here were among the first in the world to have the freedom to marry and are protected by some of the most progressive legislation – but such legislation can be somewhat ahead of local attitudes, particularly if you venture out of the cities.

British travelers don’t need a visa to enter the country, but you’ll need a certificate of vaccination if you’ve travelled from a country where Yellow Fever is endemic. Unless you’re heading out of the cities, there are no major health concerns, but it’s worth having up to date typhoid, polio and hepatitis A vaccinations. South Africa has more people living with HIV and AIDS than any other country; if you’re planning on a bit of holiday romance, bring plenty of condoms with you and be sure to use them.

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Adam Smith’s photographs can be found on Flickr.

However a short stroll down the main street Laugavegur made me think twice. Nearly every shop, bar, restaurant and house (yes, people appeared to live on the main road, in detached houses with gardens) had a rainbow flag in the window.

For any of you who have seen ‘Rick and Steve’, it looked similar to West Lahunga Beach but with less palm trees and more mountains in the background. After we had been into numerous clothes shops, cafes, newsagents and pharmacies all displaying copies of the official gay magazine, I began to think that maybe Iceland Pride was going to be bigger than I had thought.

On the day of the parade we got to Laugavegur just as the parade was beginning. There were no crowd barriers along the street – the parade route was lined with what looked like most of Reykjavik’s population (ok, it was 80,000 out of 200,000) waving rainbow flags, wearing rainbow hats and sucking rainbow lollies. It appeared that people from all walks of life – families, groups of teenagers, twenty-somethings, gaggles of old women with their fold out chairs, had all come to watch the event. There were even a few gays in there somewhere.

The parade itself was more of a hotchpotch of the gay community. Dykes on bikes led the way, followed by people with very official looking rainbow flags. Then came a series of floats with various characters on board (they may have made more sense if you could understand the Icelandic banners) and people strolling along in national costumes, two floats full of Thais and a host of people who looked like they had just got swept into the parade. At the end of the parade came a big sausage full of rainbow coloured balloons.

What there weren’t were a load of muscled boys in hot pants that are symptomatic of prides in London and other major cities. Now of course this was partly due to the city’s location at 64° north, but also because that’s not what the day is about. The atmosphere is definitely inclusive, and more about the wider community showing their support for gay, lesbian and bisexual people than a street party to get drunk and pull.

Director of Pride, Heimir Már Pétursson explained to PinkNews.co.uk: “We have managed to turn the festival to a celebration of human rights in general, not just gay rights.
“We also urge our families, sisters, brothers, mothers and fathers to come. Iceland is such a small society, people either get the point or not.”

The parade ended at Arnarhóll, a park on a hill overlooking the city where a crowd gathered in front of the stage. Various Europop acts played, though disappointingly there was no sign of the country’s openly lesbian Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir. Indeed when PinkNews.co.uk asked her spokesman if she supported pride we were told “well she is not opposed to it.” When we enquired if we could interview her, we were told that she only gives interviews in Icelandic and that she would never speaks about her sexuality.

Despite the no show of their leader, the crowd seemed to enjoy the acts (including the many different Icelandic variations of ‘I will survive’) and at the end a huge cheer went up when the sausage of balloons were released into the air. Then everyone drifted off, some people to get back home, others to the bars and restaurants in the city and a large crowd of teenagers gathered in Ingólfstorg, one of the small squares dotted around the city.

Everything calmed down somewhat for a few hours until people headed to town again, this time for a night of food, booze and cheesy music. The official pride party was at Nasa, Reykjavik’s largest nightclub. The music was gay europop, but the crowd loved it despite many of them not actually being gay but then that seemed to be the theme of pride in this very integrated, liberal city.

Adam and his boyfriend, PinkNews.co.uk publisher Benjamin Cohen stayed at Centerhotel Ararhvolur and flew with Iceland Express.

Adam’s photos can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/adman_as/

Lisa Kudrow is the star of the film as Maimi, who gave her son up for adoption when she was 17. When street punk Nicky turns up offering her the identity of her son on the proviso that he can film the reunion, Maime and her latino lover Javier hatch a plan to find her son.

Her gay stepbrother Charley is played by Alan Patridge star Steve Coogan. He has issues of his own, aside from being the father to her long lost son, he is coping with an unfaithful partner and a pair of spunk stealing lesbians. As well as dealing with the unwelcome interests of Otis (Jason Ritter), a young waiter at his restaurant.

Otis himself is coming to terms with his sexuality, concealing it from his father. So it’s not helpful when Jude (Maggie Gyllenhaal), the girl he loses his virginity to, turns up threatening to out him unless he helps her to shack up with his widower father.

If you liked The Opposite of Sex, this is a must see.

Happy Endings is now released on DVD in the UK